What does a film production accountant do?

Every film production has to have a film accountant, but what exactly do they do? Find out here!

Role of a film production accountant

An accountant on a film production is responsible for managing all of the finances for that movie – everything from taxes to budgets to risk management. They will have many duties that are specific to this type of work, so let’s take a closer look at what each of these is.

Firstly, they will set up the budget for the film so everyone knows how much money they can spend on things like personnel, equipment, and post-production costs. All of these numbers are carefully accounted for in order to make sure that enough money is left over when it comes time to submit their expenses for tax purposes.

All your tax hassles will be resolved

Taxes are a common problem for a film production, especially when dealing with foreign governments. Due to federal and state tax laws, they cannot take deductions for things like insurance, utilities, etc. However, you can write off the cost of your personal property or goods that are capitalized in order to produce the movie.

The cost of everything relating to your movie gets broken down into two categories: fixed and variable. Fixed costs are things like office space rent and equipment rental costs – anything that is paid every month regardless of production. Variable costs are more flexible – they include anything that depends on the amount of film being made. For example, if you are making a movie with 5,000 extras, there are variable costs associated with all of the food they will need to purchase.

Film production accountant handles payroll need

The accountant will handle all of the company’s payroll needs. They will have to call companies to ensure that their employees have the right insurance coverage in case something happens on an active set. For instance, many production companies would rather have you provide your own worker’s compensation policy instead of paying for it themselves. This saves them money because they can write off the cost as a business expense.

When it comes time to pay the bills, the accountant will use the production budget to calculate how much money should be left over at the end of each month. Should there be any leftover money at the end of a project, it is put into their account for future use. If you are working with a smaller budget, you will have to make do with references to past projects where you were able to use up their leftover cash.

At this point, they turn over this final cash amount into their financial statements for year-end reporting purposes. They also submit these figures for state tax returns as well as federal filing requirements.

So if you are a filmmaker in the UK and are searching for a film accountant in London, in order to keep your search short, meet Thakur Chabert, it is a chartered certified accountant and auditor firm in London and we will help you with everything related to film and media accounting.